After going down 49-35 at halftime to Southern Cal last night, Michigan coach Kevin Borseth decided to try something new in the second half.

In Borseth’s words, “It really didn’t work.”

The Wolverines ended up losing the game 81-53 at USC’s Galen Center.

The Trojans jumped on the Wolverines from the start and forced 13 turnovers in the first half. Take that, along with the Women of Troy shooting 58 percent from the field, and the Wolverines were simply outplayed.

“They played really well, they shot the ball really well,” Borseth said. “They kind of picked us apart.”

Senior forward Carly Benson was the only Wolverine able to get anything going for Michigan offensively, totaling 17 points.

Borseth said USC face-guarded Benson in the second half, meaning the USC defenders stuck their hands in her face on defense as opposed to spreading their arms wide at their sides like a player would in a typical defensive stance.

Face guarding is technically illegal in the NCAA because of the risk of poking players in the eyes, but it is rarely enforced.

With the Trojans smothering Benson, Borseth decided to try a different offensive strategy in the second half, a move he described as “grab-bagging.”

He turned to an offense based on guards driving to the basket, drawing defenders, and then dishing the ball to open shooters at the 3-point line.

It worked—a little.

The Wolverines opened the second half with five straight points from senior Melinda Queen to cut the Trojan lead to nine, but the wave of momentum didn’t last long.

The Trojans displayed the balanced attack that has worked for them all season. Four players average double figures in points, and five exceeded the double-digit mark last night, led by 19 points for redshirt senior guard LeNoir Camille.

The Trojans cooled down in the second half, but their defense just got stronger. Southern Cal forced even more Michigan turnovers than in the first half, and made the Wolverines go 0-14 from behind the arc.

“We tried to get it all back in one play, and we turned it over” Borseth said. “One thing or another just didn’t go our way.”

The new drive-and-dish strategy in the second half required Michigan to go away from getting the ball to its co-centers, senior Stephany Skrba and junior Krista Phillips.

The result was Michigan losing much of the post scoring it has gotten in the past few games, especially from Skrba—in last weekend’s game at Southern Mississippi, she piled up a career-high 25 points.

Last night, she had only eight.

Phillips was virtually invisible, with no points and two rebounds. She played just 13 minutes.

Michigan entered the game having recently received votes from the Associated Press to be in the Top 25 rankings, but Borseth didn’t seem too enthused.

“It’s nice to recognized,” he said. “But I think this loss will probably push us out of that category.”

The loss provided a bitter end to an overall successful road trip—the Wolverines won the Lay Eagle Classic in Mississippi over the weekend.

Borseth didn’t go into too much detail in assessing the trip: “We’re going to move on to the next game.”